„ENTREPRENEUR MAGNUS” (EXTRAORDINARY ENTREPRENEUR) 2015
„for professionalism, creativity, courageous and dynamic management
of the Polish worldwide strategic company”
Herbert Wirth – a Polish engineer, geologist, manager, professor of technical sciences, since 2009 the President of the Management Board of KGHM Polska Miedź S.A.( KGHM Polish Copper plc.) He is a co-founder of the think tank Poland Go Global. In 2009, he became the General Director of Mining of the 1st Degree, appointed by the Ministry of Economy. He is a member of the EIT Raw Materials Management Committee with its seat in Berlin, of the Mineral and Energy Economy Research Institute at the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Polish Association of Mining Engineers and Technicians, the Mining Sciences Committee at the Lower Silesia Branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Wrocław. He initiated the founding of the Polish Association
of Mineral Asset Valuators, of which he is also a member. He was granted the title of doctor honoris causa by the Wrocław University of Economics and the AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków, as well as many awards and honorary badges. The author and coauthor of more than 13 monographs, 95 research articles, 63 research theses and over 70 expertise papers concerning the evaluation of investment possibilities.
KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. (formerly: Kombinat Górniczo-Hutniczy Miedzi) – a strategic company, one of the largest Polish State Treasury companies, one of the main producers of copper and refined silver in the world. According to the data of KGHM, it is the sixth largest producer of electrolytic copper (approx. 500-550 thousand tons) and the largest producer of silver in the world (approx. 1260 tons of refined silver in 2011). KGHM produces also gold (903 kg in 2008), palladium and platinum concentrate (93 kg), lead and other metals, although those in
smaller quantities. KGHM also extracts rock salt. KGHM is one of the largest companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, it is a part of the WIG20 and WIG30 indexes. It was a part of the group of 16 companies which had their debut on November 19, 2009 at the Warsaw Stock Exchange creating the RESPECT Index. Those companies obtained the highest ranking class – they became the leaders in the ranking. KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. employs over 18,000 employees. Another 10,000 (not including KGHM International) work in the KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. Capital Group. Including the employees of the companies co-operating with KGHM, one can say that Polska Miedź employs over 100,000 people. KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. completed the 2009 strategy, giving its shareholders more than the average return rate:
- The rising trend of production costs was reversed – since 2012 a mid-year drop of production costs per ton by 2 percent has been recorded;
- KGHM expanded its resource base and significantly increased the production of copper – in 2012 Quadra FNX was acquired for a good price. Thanks to the active expansion completed with the acquisition of Quadra FNX, the company joined the global copper producers – in 2014 a world class project called “Sierra Gorda” was launched – the total resource base increased by 12 million tons of copper, i.e. by over 40 percent.
Development and implementation of new technologies makes KGHM a global leader guiding the industry towards new directions of development;
- KGHM’s operations have been diversified due to the increase of the resources base – KGHM has got extraction projects in Europe, North America and Chile – production has been broadened to other non-iron metals (molybdenum, gold);
- KGHM remains an important partner in the region, generating 40% of the local taxes and directly employing nearly 40,000 people;
- KGHM introduced management by goals for key managers and worked out a number of programmes promoting the transfer of knowledge and development of talents in the company. Following the path of the existing strategic directions, KGHM sets a new goal – to achieve the level of production of over 1 million tons of copper from own resources by 2020:
- KGHM’s New Strategy will be based on three pillars: development of the resource base (a wide programme of exploration in Poland and in the world, as well as potential further acquisitions of pre-production assets); development of assets (an investment programme focused on the current projects with the value of PLN 27 billion by 2020); optimization of production (decreasing the Capital Group‘s C1 production costs by about 10 percent by 2020);
- At the same time, KGHM is developing innovative technologies in the area of production and processing of metal ores, which will translate to durable competitive advantage and to a long-term increase of goodwill;
- KGHM is an attractive investment due to good perspectives on the copper market, rich resource base, diversified portfolio of world class projects, experienced employees and stable shareholding policy (up to 1/3 of the net profit).
In 2012, Mr. Herbert Wirth was awarded with the ”Bene Merito” Honorary Badge and, in 2013,with the Golden Cross of Merit.
